Take your pick: Get your expert’s report reviewed by a peer, or rebutted by a peer.  A peer review has a scientific ring to it.  A rebuttal review has an aggressive ring.

If a peer review finds that you’re out on a limb with errors and omissions in your expert’s forensic investigation and report – it happens – you can back track and correct them.  If a rebuttal review finds this, you’re stuck out on the limb and on the defense.  They both cost money but money spent on peer review is better spent and less embarrassing.

I’ve thought this for a while resulting in the following blogs over time.  Also that it was time to bundle them together.

I think blog #5 on controlling review costs is quite a good read.  It explains the different ways you can retain an expert and how each can be peer reviewed.

If you’ve got time to look at the blogs, you might start with #7 the first one I posted in 2013.

The Bundle

1. Is there an argument for a peer review of a peer review?  Posted January 11, 2020  I make the case for a peer review of a rebuttal report because most are biased.  I learned this after surveying the opinion of seven experts in the Maritimes. 
2. Ridding peer review of potential bias.  Posted December 30, 2019  A good read on six different ways of getting rid of bias in a peer review, in decreasing order of preference. 
3. Eureka! Peer review is good case management.  Posted November 16, 2018  A pithy, short blog on a Eureka! moment I had that emphasized the value of peer review at any stage of the civil litigation or insurance claim resolution process.
4. Peer review pays off – 17 years later.  Posted May 5, 2017  A long time to wait and not your normal payback period – more like a few months.  This is a case history that explains how a client was spared the lost of many 10s of 1,000s of dollars.
5. Peer review costs can be controlled.  Posted January 22, 2016  The answer is in how you retain an expert.  You have a choice of several different ways.  There’s a quote at the end of this blog that really makes you think.
6. Peer reviewing an expert’s report ensures the justice system gets what it needs.  Posted January 15, 2016  I emphasize the need for peer review again and note that it is provided for now in the remediation of contaminated sites – environmental engineering.  I reviewed 16 references in drafting this blog.
7. Peer review in forensic engineering and civil litigation.  Posted November 26, 2013  I explain the need for peer review in forensic work as perceived by a consulting professional engineer.  It was prompted after I read four poorly written “expert” reports.

(Posted by Eric E. Jorden, M.Sc., P.Eng. Consulting Professional Engineer, Forensic Engineer, Geotechnology Ltd., Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. ejorden@eastlink.ca)